The Day After the Night Before
by Annabella Marie Cullen
Summary: Ruth/Jay What happens the night after the Dean's party.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One – Waking Up

She was trapped: there was no way out: she couldn't run: she couldn't hide: she could hardly even move. There weren't any of escape roots available to her, every time she felt a flicker of hope that she might be able to get away her common scene ripped it from beneath her wildly grasping finger tips. Downstairs was guarded; two sisters and a grandmother blocked the most obvious way out. In her mind they were highly trained guards, continuously moving to prevent any chance of her sneaking away unnoticed. From the sound of their footfalls the trio, whatever the purpose behind their movement didn't stay in one place for very long at all. It seemed that there was always one of them moving around, she had been listening to them bustling for long enough to establish that. She was on the second floor so despite the large window in the room she was imprisoned in it held very little promise for a much need quick getaway. It was completely out of the question. Both of those options were besides the point at any rate considering the fact that she was unable to move more than a finger or toe for fear of waking her captor. She scanned the unfamiliar room for possible hiding places should she possibly be released by the lightly snoring man who was currently pinning her to the bed, clutching her like a comfort blanket in his sleep.

Ruth was mentally kicking herself for getting into the situation she was currently in. If she'd just been professional, been the doctor she was meant to be, as she had planned to last night then everything would be fine right now. She should have just enjoyed the free drinks at the dean's party and used it as the perfect opportunity for some professional networking. If she'd only shown her face at the party long enough to be seen to be being social able; then gone home to get on with her studying. She should have ignored Jay, resisted him and the temptation he posed, and his ill gotten gains; not taken his hand. She certainly shouldn't have left with him, gone home with him. That way she wouldn't have been stuck in the predicament that she was now.

Despite her distain for the situation that her weak minded actions the previous night had landed her in; she couldn't bring herself to regret them. She couldn't bring herself to regret the time that she spent in Jay's arms; no matter how hard she tried or told herself it was wrong. She could and did however wholly regret the actions that led to them spending the night together in the house and room where she was now trapped. She was furious with herself for not remembering that Jay had given up his flat shortly before she'd moved into her own flat. He'd moved back into his Nan's house with his two sisters. He'd told her that it was to save money but at the time someone in the department had joked that he was waiting for Ruth to ask him to move in with her. Had she remembered this fact she would have happily taken him back to her place and not insisted that they went to his place. She would have much rather have let her pride laps than experience this. It would have been better to let him see the mess that Jonathan had made of her life. It would have been better to feel his sympathy then over the uncomfortable feeling of confinement she was now experiencing.

Last night the time she had spent with Jay had been amazing and refreshing for Ruth. Jay had been overjoyed to be spending time intimately with her again and it showed in his treatment of her. It was like breathing easily again for him. Although he was always gentile with her and cared with her he loved to joke with her and mess around, generally annoying her. But the previous night he didn't have it in him to make jokes at or with her and he didn't play the fool for the sake of making her laugh. All he'd been able to do with enjoy being with her again. They'd shared some laughs together watching a bad Christmas comedy in Jay's bedroom and eaten a takeaway pizza. Most importantly of all to them both they had shared contact with each other: holding hands; touching; kissing; cuddling; and the warmth of Jay's bed.

Ruth had found that level of physical contact from him comforting last night but now in the light of the morning she found their prolonged, unbroken contact suppressive and claustrophobic. When she had first woken early that morning she had been entirely comfortable. She'd found herself curled contentedly in Jay's arms, her cheek resting on his chest with her head tucked under his chin and their legs tightly intertwined. It was warm and safe there in Jay's arms and she was happy to lie there with the bed covers nested around them. The more she lay there the more she actually started to enjoy resting with him. For all her faults she started to curse her inability to sleep in as she settled deeper into Jay's firm grasp. She even considered allowing herself to try and doze off and appreciate the extra rest she could gain during her day off. That was until she realised that they were not alone in the house; it wasn't Jay's old flat.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – Jay's Teddy Bear 

Jay was having a particularly good morning; he didn't plan for it to end soon. It was all down to the fact that he had developed a particularly uncanny ability to fool others that he was in an unbelievable deep sleep. He developed the ability as a child, when not wanting to go to school it had come in very handy, he'd taken his time to perfect it then and it was paying off well now. For all anyone knew he was the world's deepest sleeper. Things wouldn't wake him that would send lesser men flying from their beds. He had slept very well that night, not for very long, but it was the best most comfortable night's sleep he had got in months. He liked his sleep and Jay any sleep was good, but last night was one of the best sleeps he'd ever had and it was all thanks to the brunette in his arms.

It was his day off today after working the torturous Christmas shifts and he was going to enjoy it. The best way he could think of better way to enjoy the longest part of his day holding Ruth against him. He was going to do that for as long as possible whether she liked it are not, she wasn't going to run out of his bed again. He knew for a fact that it was going to take a rather large electric shock to drag him from his comfortable nest with Ruth. That or his Nan. She would only let him be lazy up to a point, asleep or not, and then she would be in pulling the covers from him and threatening him with the jug of ice water from her fridge. She had a skill for getting up him quickly, it had really helped to put him in Tess' good books at work, he hadn't been late for work in almost three months, and she had even praised him for being so reliable the other day. He had his Nan and her no nonsense attitude to thank for that. He just didn't want to experience any of that particular brand of attitude today. Although he had a sinking feeling that something was meant to be happening today, meaning that he'd be forced from his comfortable spot much sooner than he would like, but he just couldn't remember what. Whatever it was, it didn't matter, not when he was with Ruth again.

Jay was a lot more in tune with Ruth than she would ever give him credit for. She thought of him a lazy, liking to lie in bed for as long as humanly possible, but he'd found himself awake long before her each night he had spent with her. He'd developed a love for watching her sleep in that time, seeing her relaxed with her guard down, seeing her when she was truly herself. This morning had been no different he woke up to find Ruth's warm body in his arms and had smiled to himself happy that he hadn't just dreamt up her coming home with him. She'd been tucked up tightly into his chest so her face was out of his view, but he was grateful just to be with her. He had felt her stir not long before she had actually tensed and woken. He'd waited for her to move from his grasp and find something constructive to do or dress ready to leave but was pleasantly surprised when she didn't.

Ruth had stayed settled with him and even relaxed further into his embrace. Jay could tell she was almost ready to drift back to sleep and tightened his grip on her, planning on following her back to dreamland. He could have cried when he heard his Nan's alarm clock go off. It pulled Ruth back from the edge of sleep and her defences built back up. He knew a switch had flipped in her head and she was now more Doctor Winters than his Ruth. As his Nan got up and began her daily routine he felt Ruth tense in his arms again and begin to squirm uncomfortably in his grasp. He knew instantly that she wanted to get away. He heard his sisters get up one after the other and listened to them as they began clattering around the house to. In his arms Ruth was obvious attempting to get out of his grasp without waking him so he decided to play along, pretend that he was still asleep. Every time she tried to move away from him he tightened his grasp on her and closed whatever sized gap she had managed to create between them.

Jay had a plan. He decided if he could keep Ruth in bed with him long enough that his Nan and sisters would get on with their day, hopefully leaving the house, so that he have Ruth all to himself for a little longer. It was one of the rare times in his family life where there was nothing expected of the family unit and the rest of his family usually took advantage of the chance to take life a little slower than normal. There had to be a very good reason for them to be up so early during the festive period. All he could do was hope that it was something that involved them leaving the house. Thinking about it he had seen lots of shops with sale signs in the window, they might be planning a mass shopping trip, one that would keep them out all day. He knew one thing for sure nothing they could say or do was going to make him let Ruth out of his site for a moment today.

He had to smile at the position that he and Ruth and worked themselves into with his grasping and her squirming. She was now flat on her back, lying ridged on the bed while he was lying with his head on her chest and both arms wound tightly around her body. He was surprised that she hadn't ripped herself from the bed by now he wasn't used to her staying put when she very obviously wanted to leave. They must be making progress together if she was willing to stay with him, to let him sleep, when all her instincts were screaming at her to get away from a situation that she didn't want to be in. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. To him Ruth was like the teddy he'd had when he was younger, Sir Silky Button Nose the Third, he'd clutched that old battered teddy bear every night until he mysteriously went missing before he moved into his old flat. Jay had been devastated and had been sure that one of his sisters had bear napped him. He missed that old ball of fluff. But it was alright he had a new favourite teddy bear. He had a Ruth bear now, who also doubled up as a nice comfortable pillow even when she was rigged. A hard warm Ruth pillow was much better than an empty bed with no Ruth pillow could ever be.

He was very happy until he heard footsteps coming toward his room and saw the door handle turning. He groaned quietly and pulled Ruth closer to him. He wished that Ruth was still asleep or would at least have the common sense to fain sleep when someone entered the room. No one in the house had met Ruth before and he hoped that they'd have the common decency to be embraced enough to leave them pair of alone after finding him in bed with a stranger. He squeezed his eyes tighter than before and nuzzled into Ruth's chest praying that she looked like she was peacefully sleeping not being held prisoner by him. He listened intently as the person entered his room and he knew one thing for sure what ever going to happen next wasn't going to be good.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three – A Rude Awakening

Jay's room was peaceful and quite when she entered, he and the girl that he had brought home last night were still sound asleep. She quickly flipped the light switch on flooding the room with light. She rolled her eyes, Jay chose now to be nice and quite; she would have appreciated the current silence from them last night when she was desperately trying to sleep. Her Nan was either going batty, going deaf or an incredibly deep sleeper not to have heard them last night when she'd told her to go and wake him up for breakfast. They stumbled in late after everyone was in bed laughing drunkenly and fallen loudly up the stairs and spent a long time in Jay's bedroom laughing with the T.V. turned up far too loud for a long time. She had been very happy when the pair of them finally fell silent in the small hours of the morning. She had snuck into his room once it was quite hoping to find something incriminating to use against her brother in revenge and she had found exactly what she needed; and an eyeful of something she didn't need to see to top it off. The expression on his face was going to be priceless when he found out what she had taken. She'd done the motherly thing and covered them over and worked very hard to hit Jay on the side of his head before she left the room.

"Oi," She finally got hit him on the back of his head. "Wake up noisy git!" She smiled in triumph as her brother winced in pain and slowly open one eye. "I know you're awake you," She was cut off by their Nan shouting up the stairs, scolding her for the language she had planned to use. It was amazing what she was able to hear when she wanted to, selective super hearing seemed to be a gift of hers. "Get up or I'm getting the water pitcher and don't think I'm not going to use it."

"Alright, alright, Ella," He replied grumpily, not actually moving but with both his eyes open he looked half awake. "Turn the volume down a bit, yhea," He lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the light. "I was enjoying a bit of piece and quite." He stretched a little shifting the woman in his arms closer to his chest and pulled the covers up over them more so she was only just visible to his sister. "Got a good reason why I'm awake this early on my day off sis?" He asked sitting up, keeping his arm tightly around his bed mate as he did so. "Only I wasn't planning on getting up any time soon."

She laughed dryly, stopping the sound as abruptly as it started. "Didn't get much sleep last night then?" She glared at him sharply. "That makes two of us then!" He ran his free hand tiredly over his face and the girl in his arms had the decency blushed bright red before hiding her face in Jay's shoulder. She looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, she couldn't look up from the spot she was focusing on somewhere on the bed covers and didn't dare to look up embarrassed. "Nan wants you down stairs, breakfast, remember?" She sighed when all she received was a blank puzzled look. "Oh you idiot, do you want some help getting your little friend out unnoticed?" The girl visibly brightened at the idea and started to pull away from Jay's grasp but he pulled her back to him before she could move far. "It's probably best that Nan not see here, she's been working hard all day for this Jay."

"Ella," Jay said shaking his head. "This is Ruth and she's not going anywhere." Ruth's face fell at his words and she sank back into the bed, out of his grasp looking like she was trying to disappear. "She's stay with me, where she belongs." He smiled proudly as she pulled an unwilling back to his side despite her grown of protest. But at that moment nothing in the world could make him happier. He had Ruth and she had no way of escaping from him. He was going to finally be able to show her off to the rest of his family. No matter how much she glared at him or how dumb founded his little sister looked he couldn't wipe the manic grin off his face.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four – Confessions 

Everything came rushing back to Jay, what was happening today, why his sisters had been up so early. "Oh I forgot." He said loudly making Ruth and Ella both jump. After everything that had happened with Jonathan Ruth had decided to boycott her Christmas plans, what was the point of time of when you had no one to spend it with, she was more useful working. She had volunteered to work Christmas so someone else could have it off. Jay not wanting to miss the chance to spend Christmas day near Ruth had given up his time off too. His Nan, having planned a family Christmas day together had declared that Christmas had to be postponed until Jay had his day off work. Today was meant to be their Christmas day together. His grin widened, he was going to make sure that Ruth got a proper Christmas; even if it was a few days late. "Ruth," He beamed. "It's Christmas here today. We can spend Christmas together!"

If looks could kill Jay would most certainly be dead right now. Ruth had shot him a particularly lethal look at the mere idea of her being forced to spend a fake Christmas day with Jay and her family. It took her brains a few moments to form an appropriate response, one that didn't involve screaming at Jay, she didn't think she could scream exactly what she wanted to at him with his sister in the room. Jay was bouncing like an excited three year old and reeling off the plan for the day when Ruth did respond with a firm no. Before she started babbling like an idiot as she tried to reason through why she could in no way, shape or form spend the day with him. It was at that second her own personal idea of hell and she just wanted to get out of there. Even if it meant running naked through the streets to get somewhere safe she decided; that option looked incredibly good as his sister watched closely struggling to hold back her laughter.

"I can't," Ruth stuttered pushing out of his grasp firmly and wrapping the bed covers protectively around her body. "I've got things to do today; important things. I need to study, and I need to study. Jonathan he trashed the place, it's hardly liveable. I need to get it cleaned up before I go back to work. Then I need to do laundry and I wanted to go into work and," Ella's laughter finally escaped from between her lips. "I need to go, just go somewhere far away from here."

"Would you mind giving us a bit of space Ella?" Jay questioned. "You know go somewhere different."

"And miss this?" Ella scoffed. "You got no chance Jay-Jay. I'm staying right here."

"I'll tell Nan." He threatened, taking in a breath of air, ready to shout.

"Go on then, call her you idiot, I'm sure you're little girlfriend would love that." Ella smiled evilly. "And you know that Nan will be so happy that you brought her home to expose your little sisters to all this trauma."

"Please don't." Ruth said in a small voice looking at Jay with pleading eyes. "I just want to go home. I just need to go home. You've got your family to spend the day with. Please. I can't do this."

"Alright," Jay deflated somewhat with a prolonged dramatic sigh. "El, she wants to go home, you'll distract Nan right?" His sister nodded. "I'll get dressed and make you some coffee before you go then." Ella left the room quietly and he got out of bed and began pulling clean clothes on. Ruth sat silently watching him, he looked like a child whose balloon had floated away and a kicked puppy rolled into one. Gone was the bouncy, excited Jay of a few minutes ago, looking forward to spending a Christmassy day with his family. He was replaced with a down trodden, grumpy sleep deprived man who looked like he would go through the motions today all the while wishing he was somewhere else. "I know you don't have good memories of Christmas and what happened this year you probably just want to forget anything festive. But I just wanted to try and give you one good memory." He passed her one of his t-shirts and a pair of jogging bottoms. "I know you had plans with Jonathan and I know he let you down. Please don't let him put you off, you looked so excited and happy about the prospect of Christmas." He sat down to put on his socks. "Ruth I'd love to show you what Christmas can be like and you know for the record I'm not going to let you down." He brushed her messy hair from her face. "I guess I'll just have to wait for you to be ready. But I'd have loved to have today with you; not be thinking about you all on your own. I'll ask Ella to make some excuse so I can walk you home."


End file.
